Most people spend way too much time “practicing” on the range without getting better. And most people hit way too many balls. There is a reason classes in school are only 50 or 60 minutes long. Any longer and we stop losing interest. Or like me-maybe you fell asleep.
We need shorter, more focused practice sessions followed by playing to stimulate the new skills we just practiced. So once you get to the range – stretch, do a dynamic warmup, and hit a few golf balls with your club of choice to get a feel for things, then enter into practice mode. And practice mode really shouldn’t last for more than 20-30 minutes.
You should have a drill or a motion you are planning on working on and you will rehearse that before each shot. Once you have created a good feeling for that drill or motion, step in and hit the golf ball towards your target. The take a second to evaluate the results. Repeat that process for about 20 minutes or 20 golf balls. Whichever comes first.
Next, play a game. Go play a few holes if you’re at a course. If you’re at Topgolf, play TopPressure or TopShot. If you have a friend with you, play a game of horse. Can you hit a driver between those two flags? Can you hit a 7 iron left of that flag and curve it to the right? Go through your pre shot routine each time. Do that for 20-30 minutes and now you have a 50-60 minute practice session.
Few people have the attention span for much more. If we spend more time than that just hitting balls, we will lose focus, get tired, and probably begin to get worse. It is much more effective to practice like this 3 times a week than to spend 1 day a week practicing for 3 hours. If you’re still not satisfied with your practice, go see your PGA Professional for a lesson and get focused items to work on to improve your game.